I consult on the continuum between future thinking, strategy and innovation to introduce opportunities to organisations to create advantage. For current thinking check out the IdeaPort blog on this site.

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A recently released book by Wharton titled "Go Long - Why Long-Term Thinking Is Your Best Short-Term Strategy" has some useful insights for long term thinkers. The authors discuss some of these in this interview: lnkd.in/f2YBa3hlnkd.in/fD5tNRK

A speech delivered in 1998 by Neil Postman about the perils of technology worship proves extremely relevant about today's society. Highly recommended and accessible read for philosophers of technology lnkd.in/fjsdMTFlnkd.in/fycwBHG

Sensing City – Seimens Meeting London

In London I met with Elaine Trimble of Siemens. She works with the (relatively new) global cities team based at The Crystal. It opened a couple of weeks ago and is “the world’s first center dedicated to improving our knowledge of urban sustainability.” If nothing else it demonstrates the seriousness with which some companies are devoting resources into understanding some of the issues facing urban development.

Siemens has divisions that specialise in rail, smart grids, lighting and also building technologies. With respect to the Sensing City is struck me that the building technologies division might be the most interesting application as building management systems measure a range of variables that give a picture of how a building is used.

Elaine is another ex-Arup person just starting a new role, and as such we didn’t touch on too many specifics about how Siemens might become involved, but we’re staying in touch to see if there’s any opportunities.